Ian Curtis – musicians pay tribute

The Killers’ Brandon Flowers said: “Lyrically he’s someone that I’ve always looked up to. He always maintained a great integrity… he was always very powerful and very concise. I’m envious of him for that.”

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Pavement guitarist Spiral Stairs is also a big Ian Curtis fan: “It’s all about [Joy Division’s] sound for me, you can listen to it now and there’s nothing like it.”

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“Joy Division arrived at a point where ordinary people became interesting and it wasn’t about dinosaurs in their private jets.” (Tom Fleming, Wild Beasts).

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“Recently, I’ve been listening to a load of Joy Division and I have been thinking what a great band we were and how it’s a shame he wasn’t around to see how successful we’ve become. He’d have loved it.” (Stephen Morris, Joy Division/New Order).

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“I started a Joy Division covers band when I was 17 – I really do think he’s the greatest lyricist rock has ever seen.” (Moby).

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“They [Joy Division] were the epitome of that kind of post-punk attitude and style…The sound they made for the first 20 mintures while they were warming up was an imposing kind of dystopian inner-city sound.” (Johnny Marr, The Smiths).

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“It’s all about that voice. He owns that baritone register. He closed the book on it. No-one else can sing like that.” (Adam Anderson, Hurts programmer).

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“I wanted to shake their hands. But nobody would do it…But they [Joy Division] liked what I did because I made the photo shoot more conceptual instead of just a document. It was only after the shoot that they – and Ian – finally shook my hand.” (Anton Corbijn, Joy Division photographer).

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“The work that he left behind really had the ability to touch your heart. That’s soemthing that nobody can take away from him. It’s timeless.” (Brandon Flowers, The Killers).

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“I’ve a feeling he was the kind of guy who’d have done a Syd Barrett and disappeared, taken a step back from music.” (Simon Neil, Biffy Clyro).

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“I sometimes wonder whether Joy Division would have become the new U2, the rock band that Hooky and Bernard wanted them to be.” (Kevin Cummins, Joy Division photographer).

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“We’d hit record, the track would start and there’d be no vocal. All we’d hear is him lighting a cigarette…It happened like that every time.” (Chris Nagle, Joy Division engineer)

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“He was really into writing… and he’d have liked the cult appeal to Joy Division because those were the sort of things he was into.” (Stephen Morris, Joy Division/New Order).